Quaid Doongerwala studied architecture at the School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad. He also studied at the TU Delft, Netherlands. Before embarking on his independent practice he worked with architects Geoffrey Bawa (Sri Lanka) and Rahul Mehrotra (Mumbai).
Quaid also has a keen interest in teaching and design education. He has been Founding Director for the Interior Design program at Parsons, Mumbai from 2013-2016. He has also been visiting faculty at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture (KRVIA) and at the Academy of Architecture, Mumbai. Over the years he has been regularly invited as a member of juries/reviews at several architecture colleges in the country such as CEPT and KRVIA. He has also been on award selection panels for interior design and architecture awards for Indian Institute of Interior Designers (IIID) and for Indian Institute of Architects (IIA).
His interest in art, culture, films and the city has involved him in several cross disciplinary and multimedia explorations at DCOOP. He has been founding associate for the urban group PUKAR (Partners in Urban Knowledge, Action and Research). His varied interests have engaged him in simple documentation projects to film, publications, exhibition panels and art installation. He was recently involved on creating a social space for the Kochi Biennale .
Shilpa Ranade trained in architecture at CEPT, Ahmedabad and did her graduate work in Cultural Studies at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Since the time she cut her teeth as a junior architect at Rahul Mehrotra Associates, she has enjoyed being simultaneously involved in design and socio-cultural research projects.
Shilpa was involved with the seminal Gender & Space Project at PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research) and has co-authored an influential book on women and public space in Mumbai called “Why Loiter?” published by Penguin Books India in 2011. She was also associate editor of the South Asia volume of the book World Architecture 1900-2000: A Critical Mosaic published by Springer, Vienna.
Shilpa’s writing on architecture and on gendered spaces has been published in various books, journals (EPW, Index for Censorship) and professional magazines (Domus, Indian Architect & Builder). In addition to architectural practice and research, Shilpa has been involved with teaching both design and humanities courses at a number of institutes such as CEPT, Ahmedabad, Sir J.J. College of Architecture, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, St Xavier’s College, Mumbai. She has also been on review panels at several architectural colleges across the country.